Computer virtualization is a technique that involves encapsulating a computing machine platform into a virtual machine (VM) that is executed under the control of virtualization software running on a hardware computing platform (also referred to herein as “host server” or “host”). A group of hardware computing platforms may be organized as a cluster to provide resources for VMs. In a data center, it is common to see hundreds, even thousands, of VMs running on multiple clusters of host servers.
A virtual infrastructure (VI) administrator may use virtualization management software to manage virtual machine configurations and computing resource allocations. One feature of the virtualized computing environment controlled by the virtualization management software is virtual networking. VMs can be created with software-based virtual network adapters that are logically connected to a virtual switch that is further connected to physical network adapters installed in the host computer. One approach for managing virtual network connections in data centers with a large number of VMs running on multiple host servers is the distributed virtual switch described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,195,774, incorporated by reference in its entirety herein. A distributed virtual switch is an abstraction of a switch across multiple host servers that permits virtual switches on the multiple host servers to be managed as if ports of those virtual switches belonged to a single switch, the distributed virtual switch. The distributed virtual switch may have uplinks which connect to physical network adapters, as well as VM ports which provide connections for VMs running in the host servers.
Traditionally, a distributed virtual switch is managed by virtualization management software that provides a cloud management system (CMS), such as VMware® vCenter Server™ (also referred to with the short name “vCenter Server” herein) which is commercially available from VMware, Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif. Virtualization management software generally controls a single virtualization platform, where a virtualization platform represents a collection of host computers that operate together. Examples of virtualization platforms include the VMware vSphere® virtualization platform (also referred to with the short name “vSphere” herein), which is commercially available from VMware, Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif., and the VMware vCloud® Air virtualization platform (also referred to with the short name “vCloud Air” herein), which is also commercially available from VMware, Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif. Multiple virtualization platforms may cooperate to provide “hybrid” virtualization services. For example, the vSphere virtualization platform may be installed at a particular data center that is controlled by a particular user, while the vCloud Air virtualization platform is installed at one or more various other sites not controlled by that user, and thus said to be “in the cloud.” Virtual machines may be created at the vCloud Air virtualization platform on demand when computing requirements exceed the computing capacity of the hardware associated with the VMware vSphere virtualization platform.
Although distributed virtual switches act as a single switch across hosts of a virtualization platform, thus easing management burden on a management team, distributed virtual switches do not act as a single switch across virtualization platforms. Thus, an administrator must configure multiple individual distributed virtual switches when managing computer infrastructure that spans across multiple virtualization platforms. This requirement for independent management of distributed virtual switches imposes a burden on management teams, which may lead to increased cost, in both time and money, of managing virtualization resources across multiple virtualization platforms.